Break Van
Break Van, retitled Donald and Douglas in American releases, is the sixteenth episode of the second season. It aired in the US on the Shining Time Station episode, Sweet and Sour in 1991. Plot Donald and Douglas are twin engines from Scotland who arrive on the Island of Sodor to help out; however, the Fat Controller had only sent for one engine. While the twins mean well, their identical appearance causes confusion and the Fat Controller has numbers painted on them; Donald is 9, while Douglas is 10. However, the Fat Controller still intends to send one of the engines back home. In the yard, a Spiteful Brake Van takes a dislike to Douglas and does his best to make things go wrong whenever Douglas takes it out. As a result, Douglas' trains are late causing him to get a bad reputation. Donald is angry at his twin's unfair treatment and bumps the brake van hard before threatening it. The Spiteful Brake Van starts behaving better after that. Things start to go wrong, however, when Donald travels along some slippery rails and crashes his tender into a signal box. The Fat Controller is very cross at Donald and informs him that he had decided to keep him and send Douglas back before this incident. Now Donald needs to have his tender mended and James will have to do his work, which the Fat Controller knows James will not like. The Fat Controller is right and James is very grumpy about the extra work. Douglas jokes about James' incident with the tar wagons, making him angrier. He takes a train of trucks which includes the Spiteful Brake Van, who decides to make life difficult for James and has the trucks hold back, quickly tiring James out. Meeting Douglas at Wellsworth, James asks him for help climbing up Gordon's Hill, who agrees. Douglas and James work as hard as they can to climb the hill, however James starts losing steam and Douglas accidentally destroys the Spiteful Brake Van. The Fat Controller arrives with Edward and is angry that Douglas has caused even more trouble. Edward stands up for Douglas, having heard what happened and tells The Fat Controller of all the hard work Douglas did. The Fat Controller feels that Douglas went too far, but understands Douglas had good intentions and was only trying to help. The Fat Controller is left unsure about what to do with Donald and Douglas, but that is another story. Characters * Edward * James * Donald and Douglas * The Spiteful Brake Van * Sir Topham Hatt * Thomas (cameo) * Henry (cameo) * Gordon (cameo) Locations * Tidmouth * Tidmouth Sheds * Ffarquhar Sheds * Gordon's Hill * Wellsworth * Suddery Castle * The Coaling Plant * Wellsworth Trivia * This episode is based on the story of the same name from The Railway Series book, The Twin Engines. * Either a PECO or Märklin Sleeper can be seen upside down beside the tracks when James and Douglas leave the station. More sleepers are seen beside Douglas in a deleted shot. * This episode was filmed at the same time as Thomas Comes to Breakfast, as in the latter episode, Donald's tender is seen behind Percy in one shot. * The rag used to wipe down Douglas' tender is blu-tack. * A reference to the first season episode, Dirty Objects and a foreshadow to The Deputation are made. * There are a few differences between the original and restored versions: ** The scenes of Edward and Douglas is zoomed out, though part of Douglas' funnel is cropped in the first shot. ** Douglas has his nameplate when he went up Gordon's Hill and smashed the Spiteful Brake Van. * When originally broadcast, compiled with the second season episode, Better Late Than Never, the end credits mentioned Christopher Awdry's episode, though later separate versions (most notably on VHS and Cartoon Network), still had the episode listed in the end credits. * In the Japanese version, James gains an extra line as he does Donald's work. * The opening shot is taken from the cancelled episode The Missing Coach. Goofs * At the beginning, blu-tack is used to hold Donald's face. * In the wide-screen version of the first clip, Douglas' number has been painted on. * The right front tyre on the Fat Controller's blue car is slightly above the ground. * Donald's confrontation with the brake van takes place in the yard, but in the close-ups of Donald, he is at the station. * When Donald hits the signal box, the alarm bell and its walls are bumped, but when the Fat Controller arrives, the walls and the alarm bell are undamaged. * When Donald bumps the Spiteful Brake Van, the sound of him bumping him is late by a second. * The "M" is partly rubbed off on the sign on the signal box that Donald crashes into. * When James backs down next to Douglas, his eyes are wonky. * When James leaves the yard, the van coupled to him tips and Gordon's eyes are wonky. * When Donald approaches the Spiteful Brake Van, his lamp iron disappears. * The Spiteful Brake Van turns brown after Douglas crushes him. * When Douglas crushes the Spiteful Brake Van, his wheels are bluish-grey. This is due to the fluid in the model that generates the smoke effects. An extended shot shown in a postcard shows that not only are his tender axle-boxes in the same bluish-grey, but his driver's head is also backwards. * In a deleted photograph, Douglas' face is falling off when he is coupled behind the Spiteful Brake Van. * Douglas is smiling when he breaks the Spiteful Brake Van and when the Fat Controller speaks angrily to him. * When The Fat Controller says "I don't know..." Douglas' face mask moves. * When The Fat Controller says "I might have known it would be Douglas," Douglas' face is clean and his nameplate is fine, but when Edward says "I heard him from my yard," his face becomes dirty and his nameplate is crooked and crushed. * Douglas mistakenly has his nameplate during the last part of the episode (after Douglas starts helping James up the hill). In the shot where Douglas crushes the Spiteful Brake Van, the original version of this episode had the nameplate covered with a black censor bar with other shots zoomed in to keep it out-of-frame, however these were missing from the restored episode and the nameplate can be seen clearly. Merchandise * My Thomas Story Library - Donald and Douglas (discontinued) In Other Languages Home Media Releases Gallery File:Breakvan1986titlecard.png|1986 title card File:BreakvanUKtitlecard.jpg|1991 UK title card File:BreakVanremasteredtitlecard.png|Remastered UK title card File:Breakvanrestoredtitlecard.PNG|Restored UK title card File:DonaldandDouglasoriginalUStitlecard.png|Original US title card File:DonaldandDouglas1995USTitleCard.png|1995 US title card File:DonaldandDouglasUStitlecard.png|1996 US title card File:DonaldandDouglasremasteredtitlecard.png|Remastered US title card File:DonaldandDouglasUStitlecard2.png|Restored US title card File:BreakVanSpanishTitleCard.JPG|Spanish title card File:BreakVanKoreanTitleCard.PNG|Korean title card File:BreakVanFinnishTitleCard.png|Finnish title card File:BreakVanSlovenianTitleCard.png|Slovenian title card File:BreakVanJapaneseTitleCard.png|Japanese title card File:BreakVanGermanTitleCard.jpg|German title card File:BreakVanUkrainianTitleCard.jpg|Ukrainian title card File:BreakVan1.png|Stock footage File:BreakVan2.png File:BreakVan3.png|Donald and Douglas File:BreakVan4.png|Thomas File:BreakVan5.png File:BreakVan6.png File:BreakVan7.png File:BreakVan8.png File:BreakVan9.png|The Spiteful Brake Van File:BreakVan10.png File:BreakVan11.png File:BreakVan12.png File:BreakVan13.png File:BreakVan14.png File:BreakVan15.png File:BreakVan16.png File:BreakVan17.png File:BreakVan18.png File:BreakVan19.png File:BreakVan20.png File:BreakVan21.png|The Fat Controller File:BreakVan22.png File:BreakVan23.png File:BreakVan24.png|James File:BreakVan25.png File:BreakVan26.png File:BreakVan27.png|Gordon, Henry, Douglas and James File:BreakVan28.png File:BreakVan29.png File:BreakVan30.png File:BreakVan31.png File:BreakVan32.png File:BreakVan33.png File:BreakVan34.png File:BreakVan35.png File:BreakVan36.png|PECO or Märklin Sleeper File:BreakVan37.png File:BreakVan38.png|Douglas pushes the train File:BreakVan38(OriginalShot).png|Original Shot File:BreakVan39.png File:BreakVan40.png File:BreakVan40(OriginalShot).png|Original Shot File:BreakVan41.png File:BreakVan41(OriginalShot).png|Original Shot File:BreakVan42.png|Edward File:BreakVan43.png File:BreakVan44.png File:BreakVan45.png File:BreakVan46.png|Edward and Douglas File:BreakVan46(OriginalShot).png|Original Shot File:BreakVan47.png File:BreakVan48.png File:BreakVan48(OriginalShot).png|Original Shot File:BreakVan49.png File:Breakvan37.jpg File:Breakvan.png File:BreakVan50.jpg File:Breakvan2.png File:BreakVan52.jpg File:Breakvan3.png File:BreakVan57.png|Note: Douglas' face is loose File:BreakVan18.jpg File:Breakvan39.JPG File:BreakVan51.png Merchandise Gallery File:MyThomasStoryLibraryDonaldandDouglas.png|2003 Book File:DonaldandDouglas2011StoryLibrarybook.jpg|2011 Book File:MyThomasStoryLibraryBookDonaldandDouglasGreekCover.jpeg|Greek Book File:MyThomasStoryLibraryDonaldandDouglasPolishCover.jpeg|Polish Book Episode File:Break Van - British narration|UK Narration File:Donald and Douglas - American narration|US Narration Category:Season 2 episodes Category:Episodes Category:The Railway Series adaptations